Google Android Installable Image Available!

[studio]

I've uploaded all files for the SL-C1000 version and included the installation instructions. I hope the instructions are clear enough, I checked everything twice, and it worked for me. You can check this out at www.omegamoon.com. Good luck and have fun!

Cortez

Thanks for your great work and steps for C1000!!!  Im afraid i need to ask a question which is probably obvious to everyone but me as a Linux newbie. Why is this asking for a Cortex login and password and what is it?

Cheers
Studio

Glad you like it. Since this is a non-graphical console image, it asks you to enter a valid username and password on the command line. Cortez is just the machine-name I gave it (you can change it if you like), that's why it shows Cortez login:. Just enter root after the Cortez login: prompt. For this pre-defined (administrator) account no password is required (although it's saver to add a password of course).

It works now!! Awesome. Thanks!.
Now i am trying to work out how to connect it to internet with a WiFi CF adapter...

[speculatrix]

I have installed it and I'm a believer!!! Installed no problem on my c3100 following cortez's instructions. I'll deal with the problems in different threads. Great work, very impressive!

[Android Zaurus]

Creating a loop-file is also possible with the aid of Altboot. Choosing Advanced from the bootmenu you have the option to create a loop file from a root.tar.gz archive file. Disadvantage is that a loop-file always has a fixed size which is determined during creation of that file (unless you resize the file of course). A nice Altboot FAQ can be found here.

The blog author gave me a detail instruction how he did.
http://yamashita.dyndns.org/blog/android-on-zaurus/

[div class=\'codetop\']CODE[/div][div class=\'codemain\' style=\'height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto\']$dd if=/dev/null of=/media/card/android.img bs=512 count=131072
$ mkfs.ext2 /media/card/android.img
$ mount -o loop /media/card/android.img /android[/div]
Then copy all the contents of ramdisk.img, system.tar.gz and data.tar.gz to /android and chroot to it.

He says Android runs very slow. Maybe half the speed than what C-3x00 gets. But it could be good enough for easy-goer.

Thanks for the tip about Altboot. Android as Altboot sounds interresting.

Cheers,

[cycle_55]

Thanks for the C1000 instructions Cortez. I think they worked, I am just wondering what I am supposed to be seeing once android is loaded. Touch screen doesn't work and I seem to be stuck in portrait mode. Just wondering if this is what I'm supposed to see. Looks promising, thanks again.

cycle_55

[cortez]

Thanks for the C1000 instructions Cortez. I think they worked, I am just wondering what I am supposed to be seeing once android is loaded. Touch screen doesn't work and I seem to be stuck in portrait mode. Just wondering if this is what I'm supposed to see. Looks promising, thanks again.

cycle_55

You're right. What you see is the version 0.01   and much is left to be done. I focused on getting the basic version "as is" on different Zaurus models so more people can give it a try and see what Android is currently and form an opinion on what it could be in potential if more application become available. Bear in mind that the source code of the OS itself is not available yet, so it may well be that a lot of functionality (touchscreen, sound etc) is very hard to hack.

[cortez]

I've uploaded a kernel and minimal console image for the SL-C7x0 and SL-C860 models. Since I don't have one of these devices myself I need testers to see if it works. Please give me feedback on your results. Files and installation instructions can be found on www.omegamoon.com. Good luck!

The SL-C7x0/860 version seems to hit an Altboot bug. It seems there's no patch available (yet) so you might try this workaround

[cycle_55]

Thanks for the C1000 instructions Cortez. I think they worked, I am just wondering what I am supposed to be seeing once android is loaded. Touch screen doesn't work and I seem to be stuck in portrait mode. Just wondering if this is what I'm supposed to see. Looks promising, thanks again.

cycle_55

You're right. What you see is the version 0.01   and much is left to be done. I focused on getting the basic version "as is" on different Zaurus models so more people can give it a try and see what Android is currently and form an opinion on what it could be in potential if more application become available. Bear in mind that the source code of the OS itself is not available yet, so it may well be that a lot of functionality (touchscreen, sound etc) is very hard to hack.

Thanks for the great instructions and it is great to see this running on a Z.

[speculatrix]

I demoed android to a colleague at work who has an iPhone - she's a dedicated gadget freak and blogger - and she was very impressed, even though I didn't have working network!

[stuffman]

Rotten luck, the altboot bugs pop up on my 860 and prevent proper installation. When rebooting from the SD after extracting android-root.tar.gz, it hangs on the copying /home to the loop-image.

The furthest I got so far was booting the standard image and typing reboot, which goes back to the boot selector thing. Selecting the SD option says something that the card is already mounted, but copying /home works and you get the command line eventually. Typing /start gets Android's gears turning, setting up the binder things, then complains that it can't mount stuff, and ultimately hangs up after saying ***post-zygote, the same error stuff as when I tried running Android under Angstrom from flash.

I really hope I get this working some time, it's just too cool to not be able to mess with!


---

Also, on many of my cards (formatted with gparted to ext3), trying to boot from the SD gives:

Checking file system on /dev/mmcblk0p1
/dev/mmcblk0p1 has gone 35814 days without being checked, check forced

then proceeds to freeze. Fooey

[speculatrix]

BTW, does the installer for the c3x00 repartition the disk, or does it rely on the disk being ready for use; if not, what partitioning is recommended?

[danr]

Rotten luck, the altboot bugs pop up on my 860 and prevent proper installation. When rebooting from the SD after extracting android-root.tar.gz, it hangs on the copying /home to the loop-image.

The furthest I got so far was booting the standard image and typing reboot, which goes back to the boot selector thing. Selecting the SD option says something that the card is already mounted, but copying /home works and you get the command line eventually. Typing /start gets Android's gears turning, setting up the binder things, then complains that it can't mount stuff, and ultimately hangs up after saying ***post-zygote, the same error stuff as when I tried running Android under Angstrom from flash.

I really hope I get this working some time, it's just too cool to not be able to mess with!


---

Also, on many of my cards (formatted with gparted to ext3), trying to boot from the SD gives:

Checking file system on /dev/mmcblk0p1
/dev/mmcblk0p1 has gone 35814 days without being checked, check forced

then proceeds to freeze. Fooey

I may have found a way of preventing the system freeze - see https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=25399.

Cheers,

Dan

[charli]

My apology if this is off the track.

I'm working on booting android on a custom made phone equipped with ARM9v5 and following are the steps I've taken:
1. extract cortez's android-root distro to a host directory
2. update and merge my kernel to 2.6.23, including both binder and android drivers
3. nfs mount the rootfs after the device boot up with mounting point /mnt/nfs (unfortunately I don't have the mmc driver working on the device yet)
4. run shell command: $chroot /mnt/nfs/home/root/android-root/ /start
5. double checke that /dev/binder was in right mod after start:
    crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 253, 0 2008-01-21 16:40 dev/binder
6. Guess what, I got this famous red cylon bouncing forever on screen
 
here's the list of start script:

######################
#!/system/bin/sh

echo "* Booting Android"

export PATH=/sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/system/lib
export ANDROID_BOOTLOGO=1
export ANDROID_ROOT=/system
export ANDROID_ASSETS=/system/app
export ANDROID_DATA=/data
export EXTERNAL_STORAGE=/sdcard
export DRM_CONTENT=/data/drm/content

mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys

/system/bin/rm /tmp/*
/system/bin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 up

umask 000

/system/bin/app_process -Xzygote /system/bin --zygote &
/system/bin/dbus-daemon --system &
runtime
######################

I also did strace for runtime, and the log file is attached.

Not sure what I did wrong, it would be greeeeeeat if someone can shed some light on this.


thanx
charli

[Android Zaurus]

5. double checke that /dev/binder was in right mod after start:
    crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 253, 0 2008-01-21 16:40 dev/binder

Try chmod 666 /dev/binder in android-root/start again and again.

I'm still don't know why exactly but my case I put sleep 1 between init and chmod.

Android Zaurus: Boot Android up on Zaurus without chroot
http://androidzaurus.seesaa.net/article/79313160.html

Good luck.

[iczer3]

Hi Andriod,

Can the google andriod actually drive a cf GPRS card ? If it can
then we can just turn zaurus into a phone !

BR,

Felix.

[speculatrix]

Can the google andriod actually drive a cf GPRS card ? If it can
then we can just turn zaurus into a phone !

I would imagine it can, just need the serial_cs modules so that it can do the AT+ dialup and the ppp link. I will try this very soon.